Running in Place
by J. H. Fee
Summary: The day after power surge, things are still just as hectic. Static tries to figure out what to do with Permafrost while Ebon and Shiv go recruiting. Read and Review
1. A Twist of Fate

_Disclaimer: I don't own Static Shock. I don't really want to own Static Shock, just quietly write about him and not be sued. I think that's a good plan. I don't own any of the other characters either. Although I would not be adverse to getting my ownBackpack._

_Thanksto OldPrydeFan for beta'ing. Find her X-men story on here, it won't disappoint._

_Anyway, Read and review!_

Prologue – The Second Bang

Static shifted carefully on his flying disk, staring down at the still-smoking wreckage of the cargo ship. It had been four hours since the second Big Bang. Four hours since the gas had been released and the last real chance of being Virgil Hawkins for the rest of his life had faded away. Four hours since Ebon and Hotstreak had merged into…whatever the hell they had turned into…and then disappeared into the river.

"Gear to Static, find anything else?" the voice of his partner, Richie, crackled through his communicator and he instinctively shook his head, eyes following the smoke as it drifted into the sky.

"Hey Gear. No, not really," he brought his hand up to his ear. "There was that first batch of runners, but none of them _looked_ changed. So I don't really know. I thought I saw Maureen about half an hour ago, but whoever it was disappeared into the sewers."

"Maureen?" There was a brief pause at the other end. "You mean Permafrost? What was _she_ doing there?" Richie's voice sounded distant, as if he was trying to puzzle out the question. Static knew he wasn't really asking him…just thinking out loud. "You think she got gassed?"

"No clue. We can look her up tomorrow. What about you?" Static stood up on his disk and drifted down towards the ship, eyes scanning the water one last time.

"Nothing. If that Ebon-Hotstreak thing survived, it didn't wash up near here. Can we go home now, V?" Static could hear the exhaustion in Richie's voice. Between the fight and the searching, they had been out here for almost seven hours now.

"Yeah…We can go home. If it did survive…I'm sure we'll find out about it sooner or later." Static turned on his disk and went shooting over the city towards home.

"Ah, there's that optimistic Static I know and love," Richie quipped at him, and Static couldn't help but grin.

* * *

As the shining form of Gear twisted around from where he was hovering over the coastline and shot back towards the city, a section of the night-black water detached itself from the rest and drifted up onto the sand. It slowly coalesced into the featureless form of Ivan Evans, better known as the Meta-human Ebon. His milky-white eyes watched the superhero flying off and then he twisted around and sat on the sand, staring out at the water. 

He couldn't remember anything that had happened after fighting with Hotstreak inside the cargo room. The gas had gone off, he'd felt his powers returning…and then something had gone wrong and he'd blacked out…

He'd woken up on the beach, and his head felt as though someone had hit him with a truck. He'd been about to head into the city when the flying nerd had shown up and he'd been forced to hide in the water.

Not that it mattered now. Everything had gone wrong. Well, no. The big bang, he hoped, had gone alright. The canister went off, so the gas probably spread. There were going to be more Bang Babies.

But it didn't matter. He was going to have a hell of a time replacing his old crew. Talon had turned, lost her powers and betrayed him, so she was a write-off anyway. Losing Kangor, though, that was a problem. The large-footed Meta had been the closest thing Ebon knew to a decent criminal. And he hadn't seen Hotstreak, so the kid had probably drowned. That was three down, plus Ferret…damn. He'd have to find Shiv, and then see who else was left.

"Damn it," he mumbled, his arms resting on his knees. The bang would've worked if that damn Static hadn't shown up. He was always ruining things, and now he'd almost ruined Ebon's powers. But he hadn't, so that didn't matter.

'Course, if that cure in the water was still working they might all turn human again in a couple weeks anyway. But he couldn't worry about that. Not now.

For now, he'd lay low, see who he could pull back into the life, and just see about surviving. He'd deal with the cure _and_ with Static when the time was right.

A swirling black whirlwind appeared beneath Ebon and he sank down into it slowly. If he still had a face, he would have smiled

* * *

Static Shock: Running in Place 

Chapter 1 – A Twist of Fate

"Virgil? Wake up, son."

Virgil Hawkins moaned into his pillow and rolled over as the voice of his father managed to shove its way into his head. As he opened his eyes the sun hit him and he let out a surprised shout, arms lifting to cover his face. _The window doesn't face east…_ "What time is it, Pops?" He finally asked, twisting around so he could peer over at his doorway.

"Two thirty. How are you feeling?" Robert Hawkins was a giant of a man, and Virgil found himself rolling over a bit to peer up at his father as he walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Awful. How come Sharon didn't get me up?" Virgil sat up, rubbing at his eyes, and twisted around so his legs were hanging off the bed.

"Easy son," Robert put his hand on Virgil's shoulder to steady him. "I told your sister you were feeling sick and to let you sleep. She wasn't thrilled, but she listened. So what happened?"

"You mean last night?" Virgil sighed and pushed to his feet, slipping away from his fathers hand as he headed over to the mirror and ran his fingers through his hair. "Ebon stole some Big Bang Gas and was gonna start it all over again. Gear and I went to stop him, but…we were too late. We got gassed. So, we're back to normal. But Ebon and Hotstreak mutated into this…scary lookin' thing and the bang went off, gas went everywhere."

"I see. You and Richie are alright?"

"I think so. We got pretty big doses of the gas, though." Virgil held out his arms, flexing his fingers as bolts of electricity danced from tip to tip. "I might be stronger. Don't really know, though."

"Well, as long as you feel alright," Robert stood as well and headed for the door. "Come downstairs and I'll make you some breakfast. Or lunch." And then he was out the door, leaving Virgil standing there staring at his mirror. He wasn't sure, but he thought he'd seen electricity arc across his eye.

An hour later Virgil pulled on his mask and stretched, grinning at his image in the mirror again. He definitely felt stronger. And considering how much energy he'd used the day before, he should've been a lot more tired than he was.

He plopped down on the edge of his bed and dug out his Shockbox, flipping it on. "Hey Richie, you there?"

There was a long pause before Richie answered, his voice coming through muffled. "Mm…what is it?"

"I'm going out to look for Maureen, or to see if anything new turned up from last night. You coming?" Virgil pulled out his flying disk and opened it, tossing it out the window and climbing out to stand on it.

"V, if you hadn't called, I'd still be asleep. I'll come out in a couple hours. Be careful." There was the sound of someone moving and then the definitive thud of the shockbox hitting the floor. Virgil laughed and tucked the communicator back into his pocket as he rocketed up towards the sky.

* * *

The docks were blocked off with yellow and black police tape and there was a hazmat team in full containment suits taking readings around the ship. Static sat down on his disk and watched the activity for a couple minutes, debating whether or not to go speak with them. Really, he probably could help, but if they knew he'd been there the night before they'd probably want to test him for the gas and find out he hadn't lost his powers. He wasn't quite ready for that, yet. 

Instead he headed to the last place he thought he'd seen Maureen, a manhole half a block from the tanker. Static was almost positive he'd recognized the girl that had ducked underground, but at the time making sure Ebon and Hotstreak were gone had been far more important.

Moving the manhole was easy, and he hovered down until he was floating a few inches above the greenish brown water. In the dim glow of the maintenance lights he could make out the walls of the tunnel, grey steel and dirty, shooting off in both directions.

"Alright, so if the ocean is that way," Static pointed as he spoke to himself. "Then she had to go that way. Alright, here's to wasting the afternoon." And off he went, skimming over the surface of the water.

After about a mile the tunnel opened up into a cavernous water-exchange area, pumps moving water from the tunnels into the reclamation systems, and probably into some sort of water treatment plant. Or, they would have, if everything wasn't covered in a sheet of ice.

"Well, that answers that," Static drifted over to a nearby patch of ground and stepped gingerly onto the ice, inspecting one of the giant machines. It had power, but everything about it was frozen. He could probably melt it, but…

"Hey…Maureen, you here?" He called out, hoping the metahuman girl would have remained. If he could get her to get rid of the ice instead of doing it himself, it would probably mean she hadn't meant the harm. _But why does she still have her powers?_

Even if she was living on the street again, she had to be drinking water. So the antidote should've worked. But if she'd been at the docks, which she had, then she must have gotten gassed…damn it.

Static called out her name a few more times, but got no answer. If she was here, she was hiding, which he doubted. And that meant he was going to have to melt all this ice himself.

He cleared a spot on the concrete so he didn't have to worry about falling and then closed his eyes, hands balling into fists as he released his power. The room filled with painfully bright lights and sparkles, and he could hear the muffled explosion and tinkling of glass as light-bulbs exploded around him.

But as his power receeded he also heard the hum of the giant machines coming back to life. So, alls well that ends well. "Except you still don't know where Maureen is." He heard himself say, and just sort of sighed. Now that the ice was gone he didn't really have a way of tracking her.

Or maybe…He tugged out his shock-box again. "Hey Richie, wake up."

"Mm…what?" Richie had definitely still been asleep. Which Static couldn't really fault him for, after yesterday, but it was definitely getting annoying.

"Get up and meet me at the base. I need you to look something up for me," Static hopped back onto his disk and headed into the nearest tunnel, looking for another manhole.

"But," Richie started to grumble at the other end, but then let out a long sigh. "Fine, fine…I'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Good."

* * *

Virgil tugged off his mask as he stepped into The Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude, letting out a little sigh of relief. He loved being Static, but sometimes the mask was irritating. 

He was surprised to find Richie already there, decked out in his Gear costume and tapping aimlessly at one of his keyboards. The hyper intelligent metahuman had set up an entire corner of the room with computers and monitors he'd been collecting over the last year.

"Hey V. So what's so important you had to drag me out of bed at the ungodly hour of four-thirty in the afternoon?" Richie twisted around in his seat to stare at his partner.

"Ah yes, in the horrible late afternoon. Look, I lost track of Maureen, but I know she's Permafrost again so I need you to find her for me." Virgil plopped down into one of the armchairs and put his feet up on the table.

"What, you just got lazy? You can go look for her yourself, you know."

"Or you can use those big fancy satellites I know you have access to and see if some part of the city is a lot colder than the rest. If it is, we know that's where she is." Virgil grinned. "Come on man, you should've been able to figure that out. Your superbrain didn't shut off again, did it?"

"I'm just tired," Richie yawned and twisted back around to his computer, his fingers a blur as they danced over the keyboard. "So she was really at the docks, then? I wonder why?"

"No clue, but I'm gonna ask her when I find her. I thought she was staying at the homeless shelter, but if she's running around the sewers, I just don't know."

"Well, why don't you call that Reverend guy? Maybe he'd know. This is going to take a little while anyway." Gear pointed at one of the upper computer monitors and a phone number appeared. "That's his number."

* * *

Shiv sat, huddled up in the corner of the alley, staring at the wall opposite him. It was not supposed to be like this, not at _all._ Ebon was going to make sure they kept their powers, which had gone alright, he still had his…but then he had been supposed lead them! He wasn't supposed to…to merge with Hotstreak and turn into a Godzilla wannabe. 

But the cops had shown up, and his powers were back but not enough to fight them so he'd run. He'd seen Static flying around, thank god the sparkler hadn't gone after him…

And now he was stuck. Ebon was gone, Talon and the rest were normal again…this really sucked. He'd go back to the hideout for tonight, but he couldn't stay long. There was no telling if one of the former Meta-humans might rat out their hideouts for a deal.

This wasn't fun anymore!

He started to stand when the shadows around him detached from the wall and curled around him, pushing him down to the floor. A head, a familiar head, ducked out and hung upside-down in front of him. "Yo Shiv."

Shiv just grinned, his face a picture of relief. "Ebon, you're alive! I thought you'd gotten blown to bits when Static threw that thing into…whatever the hell you were."

Ebon completely separated from the wall, crouching down in front of the closest thing he had to a friend. "What are you talkin' about?" Shiv would've expected him to look surprised, if Ebon were able to have any expression anymore.

"You don't know? You and Hotstreak were fighting over the gas, I think. You guys like, mutated or something. Turned into a giant flame throwing monster…Sparky and his partner blew you up." Shiv frowned a bit. "I thought you were dead. How come you aren't dead?"

"No clue. It don't matter, anyway. I'm goin' home, you comin'?" Ebon sank into the ground, a whirlpool of darkness spinning around him. Shiv didn't answer, he just dove in.

Maybe things could still be _fun_.

* * *

Richie half-listened as Virgil spoke on the phone, his fingers tapping quietly on the keyboard as he accessed the satellite database. He couldn't figure out why Permafrost would have been at the docks. As far as he could remember, she probably didn't want to lose her powers. Having them or not having them, she was still homeless. Could she have gotten Ebon's message somehow and gone to try and keep them? 

And if she had, was she going to fight Static when he found her? The only reason they'd won last time had been cause the girl had given up…Richie honestly wasn't sure they could win again. Permafrost was _strong._ And she could short Static out, most likely.

"Hey Reverend Anderson, this is Static. Right, yeah…look, I was wondering, have you seen Maureen recently? Yes, that's right, the girl with the ice powers. Uh huh…alright…"

Richie pulled up the satellites from the last twelve hours and began flipping through their passes, overlaying them with the normal weather maps to see if anything seemed out of the ordinary, occasionally glancing over at Virgil. The other hero had his back to him, nodding occasionally to whatever was being said by the Reverend.

"Yes sir. Of course…thank you," Virgil hung up the phone and came to peer over Richie's shoulder. "He hasn't seen Maureen in six months, he thinks. She just stopped coming in one day."

Richie grinned. "Well, I think I know where she is. You saw her here, right?" He tapped a gloved finger against the edge of the satellite map on the screen.

"Yeah, and then I followed her till I got to a water exchange station which was frozen over. It was a mile of piping, at least." Virgil settled down into his chair again.

"Alright, so that would be…here…" Richie moved the map on the screen until he came to the first exchange, "which…experienced a massive temperature drop starting around three last night. You fixed it?"

"Uh huh."

"Alright, cool. Now there are four other pipe systems moving away from there. I'll just bring the map out and…yes! She went north. Look, the temperature in this area is fifteen degrees lower than any other pipe section." Gear grinned. "At least, it was twenty minutes ago. There won't be another satellite for an hour to check it."

"Well, it's a place to start," Virgil stood up and grabbed his mask off the desk, tugging it over his eyes. "I'll go check it out. And I was thinking, maybe you should get to work on that antidote you mentioned last night."

"Sure Bro, I'll get on it," Richie stood as well, heading towards the back room where he kept his chemistry supplies. Getting that antidote made as quickly as possible was a good idea. No sense risking the loss of their powers again.

"Oh, and call me if…" He twisted around to call after Virgil, but the other teen was already gone. "…ya need me. Yeesh."

* * *

"Back in the sewers…lucky me," Static sighed as he drifted along the sewer tunnel, his coat pulled tightly around him. It was definitely freezing down here, which meant Permafrost was somewhere nearby. Or else there was another metahuman. 

"Who else could it be?" He asked the tunnel walls, but they didn't have much to say. "Mr. Freeze, maybe…no reason for him to be in Dakota. That scary woman Killer Frost, but I think she's in prison…"

"…Static?"

He had drifted into the middle of another pipe exchange as he talked to himself, this one as frozen as the last, and he came up short as the timid female voice echoed around him. "…Maureen?" _Oh thank god. Not Mr. Freeze._ "Yeah, it's me…Where are you? Why are you down here?"

"You shouldn't be here, Static. Go away."

"I can't do that, Maureen. You're freezing important stuff down here, I can't let you stay." He sank to the cement floor and picked up his disk, tucking it into his pocket as he searched the shadows. _Where could she be?_

"…Let me? No one lets me do anything. The mean people wouldn't let me stay warm and the gas wouldn't let me stay normal and now you won't let me stay hidden and this is ALL your fault."

"Woah girl, that's quite a leap there. How is this _my_ fault?" He had to keep her talking, get her to show herself. If she wasn't going to come out willingly, he'd have to take her down. And he was at a massive disadvantage down here.

"They…they chased me away, you know. They didn't want the freak living with them." Her voice was distant, like she had forgotten she was even talking to anyone.

"There a warehouse no one uses and the guy who patrols said I could stay there if I was quiet but they got angry at him and he made me leave and then I was going, didn't know where just going…going…Powers were gone and maybe I could go back to…to the church…and I saw you!" The last statement was almost accusatory, and she stepped out from behind one of the giant machines, her ice-grey eyes narrowed angrily.

"Saw you and I was going to talk to you and…and say hello and…and then there was the gas…all over. And I was COLD again. Everything was cold again…" She shook her head, white hair tumbling in front of her face.

Oh man…she'd followed him to the boat to say HI? Well, that was the worst timing ever. And now she was a meta-human again. "Maureen, I'm sorry. I…we'll find a way to-"

"And now I'm stuck like this again!" She talked over him, her pale hands balled into fists. "Scared and alone and…and it's YOUR FAULT!" With this last word she waved her hand and the temperature dropped twenty degrees.

"Hey, wait, we don't have to…!" Static was cut off as a wave of hail slammed into him, knocking him backwards across the ice to slam into the far wall with an unpleasant crack.

"All your fault and I HATE it here and I can't ever go again and…and GO AWAY!" She pointed at him and half a dozen massive frozen icicles broke away from the overhead piping and shot down towards him like spears.

_Oh hell._

To Be Continued…


	2. Frozen

_((Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and thanks to Oldprydefan for Beta'ing again.I suspect I'll manage to put up a chapter every week or so. I hope, anyway. Happy New Years, folks.))_

Static Shock: Running in Place

Chapter 2: Frozen

Ebon had never been sure if the warehouse was abandoned. It still had electricity and water, but in the two years he'd used it as a backup hideout he'd never seen a single owner or worker come near it. He'd been reluctant to move anything here and risk being found by accident, but after so much time, the chance to have a hideout with relative amenities was too good to pass up.

So now he was sprawled out on the couch in said warehouse, watching stolen cable and generally feeling pretty good about himself. He and Shiv had been moving furniture from their other hideouts to here, especially the ones he thought Static knew about. They had a surprising amount of stuff when you mixed everything together.

"Hey Ebon!" The warehouse door opened and Shiv walked in, carrying a microwave against his chest. "Guess who I found?" He stepped aside to reveal the former metahuman Kangor.

"Yo Kangor. Didn't think they were gonna let you outta the hospital any time soon." Ebon straightened up in his seat. "You alright?"

"Ya mon, fine. Apparently there's some new thing down at the courthouse, they're lettin' the bang babies off for their crimes if they prove they don't have their powers no more." The former giant-footed metahuman strolled over and collapsed into a chair. He always spoke with that strange accent, and yet Ebon was pretty sure the other teen had never lived anywhere but Dakota.

"Anyway, they did some sorta test, but really it was obvious I'm normal now," Kangor held up his legs, wiggling his normal-sized feet in the air. "So they let me go."

"Really…" Ebon scooped up the remote and turned off the television. "Well, that means that the rest of the cured people will be out too. So all we gotta do…" He leaned forward in his seat, his eyes narrowing. "…is find some way to get all your powers back. If you want them."

"Hey mon, easier said than done." Kangor shifted in his seat. "You blew up the last can of gas last night, right? So, it's gone. If we weren't there…we're stuck."

"We'll see," Ebon settled back into his chair. "We'll see."

* * *

"…Go Away!" 

Static barely noticed Permafrost's ranting, his attention focused on the six foot long icicles flying towards him. His gloved hand lashed out, a swirl of electricity grabbing a loose piece of metal from a nearby machine and ripping it away, sending it twirling through the frozen projectiles, shattering them.

The metal slammed to the floor with a clatter as he was pelted with chunks of ice, but at least they weren't impaling him. He felt one slam into his forehead and a second into his cheek and just hid his face behind his hands until it stopped.

"Maureen, come on!" Static shoved himself to his feet, pressing his palm against his forehead. _Oh yeah, that's bleeding…_ It was a good thing he had told his father about all this, because he was not going to be able to hide a grievous head wound. "I don't want to fight you! I swear, I didn't want you to get hurt or make you become Permafrost again…" He took a breath, waiting, and a moment later she ice-skated into view again from behind one of the machines, her face a mass of battling emotions. "I didn't even realize you were there."

She let out a growl, her face twisting into an expression of frightening hatred, and Static realized he probably shouldn't have said that. _No more telling the attention starved homeless girl you didn't notice her, alright?_

Static dove out of the way as another wave of icicles snapped away and flew towards him, pulling out his flying disk as he rolled and leaping up onto it. He'd have a better chance of not getting impaled if he could move around.

"Didn't realize! Didn't see and now I'm stuck and cold and alone and…and…" Permafrost slid out to the middle of the frozen room, her hands balled into fists, eyes narrowed. "And you don't care! You want me to stop so the machines work and everyone else gets to be warm. It's not fair…" Her head dipped down, white hair tumbling forward to cover her face.

Static dropped down towards her, hands held out in front of him, ready for her to attack again. "Maureen, that's not true. I don't want you to stay down here. You should come with me. We can go up there, go back to the church…"

"It's not fair!" Each word was punctuated, practically spit out at him, and when she looked up Static suddenly found himself at the business end of a five foot blizzard. It caught him up before he reacted, spinning him off his disk and blinding him with snow. He lashed out, bursts of energy flying from his hands, trying to hit where she had been, where he thought she had been, and then he slammed into something hard and everything went black.

* * *

Richie stared at the computer in front of him, a frown on his perpetually cheerful face. _That can't be right._

During the gas explosion the previous night Backpack had acquired a sample of the substance, and Richie was now studying it so that he could come up with a way to recreate it, or to ensure that he could counter any antidote. But something was wrong. He'd seen copies of the original big bang gas, and this was almost identical. _But Almost only counts in horse-shoes and hand grenades…_

It had to be the same, because the doctor had created the cure from it, and yet it he had already identified two different cell clusters that had not been present in the original. But it had the same effect as the older gas.

"At least, it _appears_ to have the same effect…" He said to himself, flipping to another monitor. He hadn't thought to do a blood test on himself or Static. Really, he had assumed that the gas would just react the same way…which had been mostly right…

He'd have to get some syringes and do a little research. But if this was correct, the gas that had gone off the night before had been different from the first big bang. Which meant the cure might not work.

Richie stared at the screen for a long time before he picked up his Shock-box. "Static, you better come back here. I think I found something important." He tapped at the keyboard, bringing up another screen. "Yo, Static?"

He pressed the force-receive button and yanked his head away from the earpiece as a deluge of screeching interference echoed out. "…Static?" He forced himself to lean closer, eyes closing. It didn't sound like interference…it sounded like wind.

"…ot fair!" The voice was barely audible, but it was definitely female. And if someone female was screaming at Static that meant he found Permafrost. And if he wasn't answering, she was probably destroying him.

"Damn." Richie grabbed his helmet and ran for the door.

* * *

Gear hovered down the subway tunnel, watching the small blinking light in the corner of his mask and occasionally tapping at a button on his wrist. He'd built trackers into the new Shock-boxes, and Static's box was still transmitting, which was somewhat reassuring. 

Aside from the fact that he wasn't answering, anyway.

The temperature had dropped seventeen degrees since he'd first started down the tunnel, which was not reassuring either. His suit offered him some insulation, as did Static's, but neither of them were capable of dealing with temperatures too far below freezing. _Which Permafrost specializes in. This is not a good idea._

"Static, you there?" He'd been trying the Shock-box every five minutes since he'd left the hideout, and while the wind had died out after a couple minutes, he hadn't been able to get anything since then. Which meant Static was unconscious, separated from his Shock-box, or dead. _It's not that. He can't be dead._

He almost missed the icicle that was hanging from the tunnel ceiling, ducking at the last second and then drifting into tunnels that had shifted from brown and grey to ice-bleach-white. The walls were frozen, the floor was frozen, even the lights were frozen, casting an eerie blue glow onto everything that made the ice almost look fake.

Gear was eventually stopped by a giant wall of ice where his map said a large room should open up. _Static's tracer is on the other side of this wall…_He dropped down towards the frozen floor, the rockets from his shoes melting clear a path where he could stand. "Backpack, melt that."

The little robot crawled down off Gear's back and over to the ice wall, its camera extending out to peer at the reflective surface, and then a pair of blowtorches emerged, one from each side, and began melting the ice.

Two minutes later the space was large enough for Gear to crawl through and he did, Backpack leaping back onto him once he was through and they both hovered into the air. The room was like a giant frozen box, everything was covered in a sheen of ice and large piles of snow were heaped up in every corner. The rest of the tunnel entrances seemed to be frozen over as well.

"The tracker is somewhere around here." Gear talked to himself, his voice echoing strangely off the massive frozen walls. He twisted around slowly, the blinking light on his visor finally going solid when he looked at a large pile of snow against the far wall.

"Static!" Gear shot across the room, dropping to his knees right before he got to the frozen mass, gloved hands scooping the snow away and shoving it across the ice. It took about thirty seconds for him to uncover Static, the other superhero was unconscious, sprawled out on his stomach, and his legs were frozen into the ice on the floor from the knees down.

"V! Hold on. Backpack, melt that ice. And be careful!" The little robot dropped off him again, blowtorches out as it began melting through the ice around Static's legs. Gear grabbed Static by the shoulders, shaking him lightly. "Static…come on man, wake up."

The other boy only groaned in response, eyes shifting beneath his lids. _At least he's not dead,_ Gear thought with a sigh of relief, watching as Backpack melted through the ice. When it seemed thin enough, the mechanically-minded superhero grabbed Static under the each arm and hauled him free, the last remnants of the ice shattering around them.

Backpack scurried over to the tunnel they had arrived through, blowtorches out to make the entrance bigger as Gear stood up, holding up the unconscious static under his arms. "Come on V, wake up. You're heavy." He tried to joke, but his heart wasn't in it.

_This is bad.

* * *

_

Virgil awoke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright, his hands coming up to ward off the snow and hail before it could slam into his head.

But it never came. And he wasn't cold. _What's going on?_

He lowered his arms to his lap slowly, peering around. He was back at the gas station, laying on the old brown couch under the window, and he wasn't in his costume anymore. And more importantly, he wasn't about to get killed by a crazy weather witch.

He reached up and tugged down one of the slats on the window blinds, peering out at the city. The sun was almost setting, so he must have been out for at least five hours. Which meant Gear had come and rescued him.

"Richie?" He grabbed the blanket, shoving it off onto the couch as he stood up, stretching. "Bro? What happened?" He glanced down at his clothing…boxers and a t-shirt, but that didn't really matter. "Richie?"

"He's not here."

Virgil whirled around at the female voice coming from the other room, hands balling, a charge racing to his fingers…and found himself face to face with the genetically engineered meta-human Shenice, better known as Shebang. She was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, dressed in jeans and a tank-top, with a smirk on her face. "Nice boxers."

"What are you doing here?" Virgil allowed himself to relax, hands dropping back to his sides. "And where's Richie?" Her comment finally caught his ears and he began looking around for his pants.

"Richie's running an errand, something about the Big Bang gas, but he called me and asked me to come watch you. He sounded really worried." Shenice pushed away from the door and walked across the room, scooping up a pair of jeans from a chair and tossing them to him. "Did you really get frozen to the floor?"

Virgil caught the pants and turned away from her to pull them on. "I don't remember. Maureen…Permafrost…launched like, an entire blizzard at me. I must have passed out." He shook his head, twisting back to her once his pants were secure. "I guess Richie came and found me, or else I'd still be down there. If he said I was frozen to the floor…then I was frozen to the floor."

"Permafrost, huh? I think I've heard of her. She went nuts at Christmas, right? Froze a power station and a mall?" Shenice sat down in the chair that Virgil's jeans had been on. "But Richie said you convinced her to stop doing stuff like this."

"I thought I did." With a sigh, Virgil settled back onto the couch, his eyes on the floor. "And she's not nuts. Well…she _is_ nuts but not like…crazy nuts. More like neglected nuts…I don't think we can really understand it, you know? She's been living on her own for years."

"She's had it rough, sure. But that's no reason for her to attack you." Shenice shook her head quickly, her voice serious. "You can't pity her if she's going to attack you. She'll win, then. Hell, she already won. I bet you were trying to get through to her when she did it, weren't you?"

Virgil shifted a bit and sighed. "Yeah, I was. But I had to try! I couldn't just attack her." He leaned back and folded his hands. "It doesn't matter, though. She's angry at me, so she's not going to attack anyone else."

"Why's she angry at you? You helped her out before." Shenice sounded confused, but Virgil couldn't blame her. She'd always had a very black and white view of the world.

"Apparently she saw me at the docks last night and came to talk to me, I don't know why." Virgil frowned, staring at his shoes, his eyes distant. "She must have been near the ship when the gas went off, and she got her powers back. I think the people at the shelter must have chased her away, I'm not sure, but with her powers gone she probably thought she could go back."

"So…she's pretty angry that they're back." Virgil almost laughed. "I think I would be too, in a situation like that." He stood up, suddenly realizing just how tired he was but ignoring it. "Anyway, what did you say Richie was doing? Something about the bang gas?"

"He told me he was going to see the doctor who made the cure. He was talking about getting a sample 'of the original.' I'm not really sure what he meant." She smiled a little. "He left almost as soon as I got here, so I didn't have time to ask too many questions."

"The original…" With a shake of his head Virgil turned to peer out the window again, lifting his arms to lean heavily against the counter. "If he means the original big bang gas, then that means what we got hit with last night was different. But that doesn't make any sense." His voice trailed off.

"Come lay down again, Virg. I don't think you're supposed to be walking around after being frozen." Shenice stood and headed over, grabbing his arm and gently but firmly pulling him back towards the couch. "Richie'll tell you what he means when he gets back."

* * *

"…So, that's everything." Gear reached out to take the sample slide back from Doctor Todd and tucked it into the storage slot on Backpack. "If the gas on the ship was changed somehow, I don't think your cure is going to work on it." 

"Gear, this doesn't make any sense. The sample that Ebon took was the one I used to _create_ the cure. It can't be different from the original bang gas." The doctor shook his head, moving across the room and pulling a clipboard from a slot on the wall, flipping back through several pages.

"Well, you saw for yourself they are different. I'm guessing that whatever changed the gas was on the boat though, or else it was somehow caused by Ebon and Hotstreak fighting." Gear could feel himself pulling away mentally, his mind trying to wrap itself around the problem. He forced himself to focus. "But that's not the point. I need to know where you got the gas, I need to see if I can get another sample."

"That was the last one, Gear." Doctor Todd shook his head sadly.

"Well, tell me anyway. It doesn't hurt if I check, right?"

"Well," he stared at the clipboard for another long moment and then nodded. "Fine, but…you can't tell them you got it from me." He took a breath. "I got the sample from Alva. He told me to tell everyone it was the last, but I don't know if it really was."

"Alva? That's impossible." Gear said instantly. Static had destroyed Alva's research material. Once Alva's son, calling himself Omnifarious, had used up the remaining Big Bang gas that the company had, Alva should not have been able to create any more.

"Impossible or not, that's where I received my sample." The clipboard was set down. "Is Alva the company where the gas was originally made? I mean, I assumed it was but I wasn't going to say anything about it. Not when he was willing to supply me with research materials."

"Yes, they were. Anyway, thank you." Gear smiled at the doctor. "I'll get back to you when I know an-" A black fist flashed out from the wall and slammed into Gear's face, sending him spinning off his feet and crashing into the desk.

"Yeah, thanks Doc." Ebon melted off the wall, his posture relaxed, superior. "You've been a big help." His hand shot out and crashed into Gear again as the superhero tried to stand, slamming him hard into the desk again, and leaving him to slump unconscious to the floor.

_To be continued…_


	3. Loss and Gain

Static Shock: Running in Place

Chapter 3 – Loss and Gain

Permafrost stared out at the Central Park Lake, her pale fingers curling and uncurling slowly, the tips barely peeking out from the sleeves of her coat. The chill wind swirled around her, covering the grass with a thin layer of snow.

She'd been Maureen again. She knew she had, she had felt Permafrost melting away, felt herself getting warm again.

But now it didn't matter. Now she was an outcast again, now she'd never be able to go back to the church, she'd never be accepted. The shelter had been nice, the Father had been nice, she had been ready to call it home. Then the people had been horrible and they had chased her away.

She would never find a home again.

She stretched her hand out, fingers splaying out from her palm as swirls of snow twisted away from her fingers and freezing when they touched the ground. She thrust her hand forward and the ice slid out over the lake, forming into a set of stairs that twisted and looped out to the center.

Permafrost came to a pause at the edge of the stairs, her blue eyes watching the water drifting beneath her. She would never find a home, but she could make one. Her arms stretched out, sleeves dropping back to let her hands touch the cold air, and with a twitch, a pair of walls of ice burst forth from the lake.

She would make a perfect home, a palace of ice and cold, and no one would dare try to stop her. Not even Static had been able to stop her.

* * *

"Gear? Hey, Gear, wake up."

Gear felt himself groan, is eyes forcing their way open to stare up through the green tint of his face mask. The almost-indistinct faces of Static and Shebang were hovering over him, twin masks of concern on their faces.

But why were they here? All he had to do was talk to Doctor Todd, so he didn't need any-

_Ebon!_

The memory of the shadowy metahuman crashing into him flared to life and Gear shot up, practically knocking the other two heroes aside in his desperation. "Ebon is he…" Every light in the lab was on, there wasn't a shadow larger than a paper cup anywhere in sight. Ebon couldn't be there. "He was here."

"Relax Bro, we know." Static's hands were on Gear's shoulders, urging him back down. "The Doctor found your Shockbox and called us just after Ebon left. Are you alright?"

Gear nodded slowly, reaching up to rub at his head. "Yeah, ears are ringing a little. I'll be fine." He pushed himself to his feet, trying to ignore the fact that the room was spinning a bit. "We need to stop Ebon."

"I called Alva," Doctor Todd had been standing on the other side of the room. "He said he will take care of it and does not want your help."

"Oh, right, like that ever stopped us before." Gear laughed and immediately regretted it, sitting down again. "Just gimmie a minute and we can go."

"Actually," Static had moved away once Gear had settled down, and was leaning against one of the Doctor's lab tables. "We have a bigger problem. Well, more immediate, anyway…"

Gear stared at Static. "What could be more important than keeping Ebon from getting more bang gas? Is the world ending? I don't think I was unconscious that long…"

"That crazy ice-queen built herself a castle in the park." Shebang spoke up then, a little smirk on her face. "We were waiting for you to wake up 'cause we need some way to stop her, and the direct approach apparently doesn't work." She tossed a smirk at Static, who just sighed.

"I'd like to see you do any better than I did." Static grumbled, pointedly looking out the window. "But seriously, we need a plan."

"Yeah, actually, I think I have one." Gear grinned, taking a deep breath and standing, leaning heavily on a table but at least he was mobile. "Remember those bracelet things that you and Hotstreak wore when we were captured by Alva? They almost shut off your powers?"

"Yeah, of course. We've still got the broken ones at the hideout. Think you can fix them?"

"Yeah, I do." Gear reached up to rub at his eyes for a moment. "And if we can get it on Permafrost, it will dampen her powers enough for us to control her."

"Or at least buy us enough time to figure out what to do with her."

* * *

An hour later the three of them went shooting over the police barricade that had formed at the entrance to the park, ignoring the shouted order to stop from a few of the rookies. Most of the police in Dakota liked the assistance that Static and Gear gave them, but some of the newer ones seemed to have a Gotham-complex. _The only Good Vigilante is a Dead Vigilante_.

Static hovered to a stop at the bottom of a winding set of ice-stairs that stretched out from the edge of the lake to the frozen door of the castle. "Wow…she's certainly got the details down." He said in surprise, lowering down to the ground so Shebang could hop off onto the dirt.

The castle was a good forty feet high, and if it hadn't been ice-white, it would have been a perfect replica of a castle out of any good fantasy movie. Tall parapets, a wooden door, flags frozen in the act of waving, even the slots to shoot arrows out of.

"Yeah, well, we still have to bring it down, pretty or not," Gear hovered up a few feet to try and look through one of the slots. "I'm not sure it's a good idea to split up, but if the inside is as complex as the outside, we probably need to. Just to find her."

"Or we could just try the throne room," Shebang grinned up at the two floating teens. "I know if I were playing Princess in my own shiny castle, I'd be in the throne room."

"Eh…it's worth a shot," Static hovered back down and Shebang hopped up onto the disc behind him, and the three took off into the air above the castle.

Permafrost was, in fact, in the throne room. She was putting the finishing touches on a large, imposing knight in full armor who would stand guard over her door. There was certainly one benefit to her powers…she could make _really_ cool snowmen. She'd already created a queen, who sat on the pair of thrones dressed in a long flowing white and blue dress. Permafrost had tried to model the face after her mother, but tiny details were hard, even with good control over ice. But it was close. Or she thought it was close.

She put the last touch on the knights helmet and stepped back, reaching up to brush her white hair out of her face and giving the statue a once-over. It seemed good. It would never move, but at least she might not _feel_ as lonely.

"So, that's the door to the throne room, right?"

"I think so."

Permafrost froze as the voices drifted to her from the courtyard. That sounded like Static and someone else, a girl. Probably that Shebang that he sometimes hung out with. Which meant he'd brought friends to take her down, which was probably a bad thing, since they'd wreck her castle.

For a moment, she considered just opening the door and going out to meet them, trying to talk to them. But they wouldn't listen…even if Static might listen, why would his friends? They'd be just like everyone else…

* * *

Static tapped his gloved finger against the ice-door that they suspected lead into the throne room and sighed. "It's thick. I can't melt it without melting everything else around me. And even then, Maureen might freeze it all again just as fast."

"I could probably shatter it," Shebang flexed her fingers twice, balling her hands up into fists. "It might hurt a little, but I could probably."

"Don't break my castle." The ice door swung open and Permafrost stood standing in the frame, her eyes narrowed, her hood pulled up to shadow her face. "Go away! I'm not going to bother anyone, and no one can bother me here, so just leave me alone!"

Static just stared in surprise at the young girl. It was the most coherent thing he'd ever heard her say. Which wasn't a good thing, since if she was coherent, she'd probably handle herself even better in a fight. "Maureen, we can't just…leave. The police aren't going to let you live in the middle of the park. Or keep a giant ice-castle here."

"They can't stop me! They don't care. Please, just leave!" Permafrost stomped her foot against the ice floor and the entire castle shuddered. Her eyes were narrowed in anger, her hair hanging down to hide part of her face. "I don't want to hurt anyone, but I…" She trailed off and whirled around, bringing her hand up in front of her.

"I said LEAVE ME ALONE!" While the younger girl had been yelling, Shebang had been inching around the edge of the courtyard, intent on catching the other girl from behind. She didn't even have time to get out of the way as Permafrost released another mini-blizzard, encasing the metahuman girl's legs in a solid block of ice.

"Hey!" Shebang stared at the ice-powered girl in surprise, and then slammed her fist down onto the block of ice. It cracked, but it was obvious it was going to take a little while for her to get free. "Lemmie out!"

"Maureen, don't do this. We don't want to fight you." Static took a step towards the smaller girl, and she raised her hands towards him. "Come on, don't do this. I'm not your enemy."

"Yes you are! You want to make me leave! There isn't anywhere else but you want me to leave and I can't and…and…" Her small body was heaving with each breath she took, her hands shaking. "You can't make me!"

Static and Gear took off into the air just as Permafrost let loose with another contained blizzard, leaving an extra foot of ice along the ground where the two of them had been standing. They split off in two directions and she sent long tunnels of supercooled air shooting after them, blocks of condensed water tumbling out to shatter on the icestones and into the lake.

"Leave me alone! Leave my castle alone! I won't let you take me! It's all your fault!"

It took static a few seconds to figure out her range and hover up out of it, meeting gear there as Permafrost continued to fire mindlessly into the air. "She's _really_ angry."

"I noticed," Gear pursed his lips, watching Shebang continued to pound on her ice-prison. "If we can't get near her, we can't put one of the necklaces on her. And anything we can hit her with strong enough to knock her down might kill her."

"Well, Shebang's gonna go after her the moment she gets free. If we keep her distracted, she might be able to get close enough." Static hovered up another foot as a handful of ice-blocks nearly reached them.

"Or she'll get flash-frozen." Gear couldn't help but sound skeptical.

"Well, I guess we'll just find out, won't we?" Static bent his knees and shot back down towards the castle, spinning on his disc to dodge another ice-block.

* * *

They were too high, she couldn't hit them but she _needed_ to or they weren't going to go away! Permafrost could barely contain the growl building up in her chest as she fired sheet after sheet of ice and snow at the two flying figures. They were going to tear down her castle and her statues and make her go back…wherever they wanted. But no one would take her or want her and…and…

"No!" She slapped her hands together and a pillar of ice shot straight up through the air, nearly crashing into Gear as he came to a stop a few inches from the side. "I won't let you-"

Her powers shut off as someone crashed into her from the side, sending them both sliding across the frozen courtyard. _No, the girl!_ Permafrost tried to turn herself over, but the weight of the older teen was kept her pinned to the ice. "Let me up! Get off get off let go let."

She never saw the punch coming.

* * *

"You _punched _her?" Static was stunned, hoping off his disc and sliding over to the pair of girls, staring in shock at the unconscious Permafrost. "I mean, she's like, fourteen! You're too strong to punch little kids!"

"Well, if you can think of a better way to stop her, I'd love to hear it," Shebang crawled off the younger girl and tugged the power-dampening collar off the loop on her belt and snapped it around Permafrost's neck.

"Well…no." Static sighed. "I just…we shouldn't hurt her. She's not a villain. She's just…"

"She's just dangerous. We couldn't let her stay here." Shebang stood up and brushed the last of the ice-shards off her costume. "God I'm cold."

"Even if we wanted to, the police wouldn't have let her stay." Gear landed nearby, dropping the last few feet so his rocket-boots didn't melt down into the floor. "So what now?"

Static pursed his lips, staring down at the unconscious girl. She looked almost normal now, at peace. "I'm not giving her over to the police. She doesn't deserve to go to Juvie. Hell, it's my fault she's got her powers back. We'll take her with us."

"They're not going to be happy with that." Gear shook his head. "A lot of the new ones don't like us anyway."

"They'll have to deal. We'll leave by going over Jefferson, they won't have a barricade over there, so many they won't notice us, so maybe they'll just think she got away."

"You're the boss." Gear shrugged and hopped back into the air, firing his boots and offering a hand out to Shebang. "Come on."

As the two of them took off into the sky, Static reached down and scooped up Permafrost in his arms. She didn't stir at all. "Wow, she really did a number on you." He muttered, shaking his head as he stepped back onto his disk and shot off into the sky.

* * *

Shiv dove for cover behind a car as a small explosion rocked the air behind him. He and Ebon had turned up at the entrance to Alva Industries intent on finding themselves some more of the Big Bang gas, and had been met with a remarkable amount of force.

"Ebon! What the hell should we do?" He shouted into the air, sure the shadow-melting meta would hear him. A moment later the teen oozed out of the shadows next to him.

"Shut up Shiv, I'm thinkin'." Ebon would have frowned if he still had a face. The damn goody-two-shoes must have called Alva and warned him they were coming, it was the only way to explain this.

"We could retreat. Come back when they aren't expecting it." Shiv twisted around and leaned up to peer over the car, ducking down a second later when two bullets spanged off the metal of the hood. "I don't want to get shot."

"No, we ain't retreatin'. I got an idea. Run that way…make yourself some shields to block their bullets, but try and draw their fire, alright? I can probably slip inside once they ain't payin' as much attention."

Shiv started to shake his head, but stopped once he remembered the last time someone had refused Ebon. Ebon was a good leader, but he had a temper…a temper Shiv had no intention of crossing. "Alright. I'll meet you back at base."

And with that, he took off down the street, trying to ignore the bullets that were bouncing off the red shields he erected from both his hands.

* * *

Five minutes later, Ebon slithered along the shadows on the ceiling of the Alva Industries hallway, carefully keeping himself from accidently covering a light or sliding into a spot where a shadow shouldn't be. He'd gotten pretty good at this over the last few years, but he couldn't help but be worried. A mistake now would cost him everything. 

A conversation he'd overheard when he first entered lead him to believe that, if there was a sample in the building, it would be in this specific storage vault. A storage vault which, surprisingly, only had two guards in front of the doors. Two bored looking guards.

It was all Ebon could do not to laugh.

* * *

Shiv slid through the door to the warehouse and slammed it behind him, latching both locks and leaning his weight against it as he tried to catch his breath. He was pretty sure he'd lost the guards almost ten blocks back, but he hadn't stopped running until he'd arrived…just to be safe.

"How'd it go mon?" Kangor was sprawled out on the couch watching the TV, and he sat up a bit, peering over the tops of his glasses.

"Don't know. Ebon made me a distraction…won't know till he gets here." Shiv took a long, calming breath and pushed off the door, making his way across the room to the small fridge and getting himself a soda. "If he gets here."

"Hey mon, have faith. This is Ebon we're talkin' about. He never let us down before."

"That's right, I haven't." One of the shadows suddenly disconnected from the wall and coalesced into Ebon, a foot long metal canister resting in his left hand. "And I never will."

_To be continued…_


	4. One step forward, two steps back

Static Shock – Running in Place

Chapter 4 – One step forward, Two Steps back

Madelyn Spaulding tapped her fingers against her stomach as she watched the evening sun setting behind the buildings in the center of Dakota. It was the first time she'd seen a sunset without being supervised in forever. The first time she'd seen one without being in a drug-induced stupor to keep her from picking up a wall and walking out of prison.

She'd missed the sun.

Of course, such a view came with the inherent downside of a loss of all of her powers. They'd let her out, once she had sworn her abilities were gone. She was on some kind of special probation, she wasn't quite certain of the details but, since the only way to break it was to manifest powers and start wrecking things, she wasn't that concerned.

Not that she didn't half-wish she could. She sat up and brushed her black hair back behind her ears, glancing around the park slowly before settling her gaze on a discarded Soder can resting in the grass next to the path. Madelyn stretched out her hand towards it, fingers curling unconsciously as she narrowed her eyes and tried to find that spot deep in her mind that let her move things. The source, she figured, of her telekinesis.

After several long moments of nothing, she let out a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding and collapsed backwards onto the bench, closing her eyes. She really was human again. _Normal_ again. Which might not be a bad thing, since she could try to fit in, maybe. Go to school, maybe make some friends again…probably not, but she could try.

"Now you look like you've lost something, girl. Something deep inside you are desperate to get back."

The voice was familiar, inner city slang mixed with just a hint of intelligence, and she didn't even bother to open her eyes to answer. "Yeah, you could say that. Lost the best and worst thing that ever happened to me."

"Well, what would ya say if I knew how you could get it back, hmm?" The voice was closer, right above her, and suddenly a shadow fell between her face and the sun, blocking off the faint hint of light always visible behind her eyelids. She slowly opened her eyes, and found herself staring up into the featureless black face of Ebon. _And he has his powers._

She didn't answer right away, considering all the choices she had. She could be normal, she could be safe, and not have to worry about prison or cops or…_Or I could move things with my mind._

Finally, she smiled. It was slow at first, but before long it was as wide as she could go. "I would say…that sounds just perfect."

* * *

Virgil stretched a blanket over the sleeping form of Maureen, whom he had set down on the couch in the Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude when they had returned. She looked peaceful, for once…more peaceful than he could ever remember seeing her. Maybe unconsciousness wasn't always a bad thing.

"I still think we should tie her up. In case she wakes up, you know, cranky and extra insane." Shenice was standing in the doorway to Richie's lab, dressed in a tanktop and jeans, her arms crossed under her chest.

"I told you, she's not crazy. Well…not exactly crazy," Virgil sighed and turned his back to the girl, stripping off the top of his costume and hanging it on a chair before heading over to a closet and tugging out an old t-shirt. "If we tie her up, she'll just wake up scared. Besides, she's gonna be out for hours, considering how hard you punched her. We're lucky she's going to wake up at all."

"You know what? Just _drop it_ alright? Next time, I'll let the crazy psychopathic ice-queen turn you and Gear into ice-cubes. Then at least I won't have to listen to your griping." Shenice whirled around and disappeared back into Richie's lab.

"Hey! I didn't mean…oh never mind," Virgil shook his head, turning back to Maureen, watching her for a long moment before heading back across the room and tugging his mask back on. No sense doing anything overly forward. She knew Static…she didn't know Virgil.

* * *

In the lab, Richie was sitting in front of his desk filling up syringes with a grey-brown liquid and making check marks on a sheet of paper.

"Whatcha doin'?" Shenice leaned over Richie's shoulder, peering at the pile of medical equipment. "Ooh, are we going to be injecting people?"

"Well, _I'm_ going to be injecting people," Richie smirked. "This is a…big bang gas antidote antidote. Sort of." The blonde teen shook his head, trying to come up with a decent way to explain it. "It'll make sure that someone won't be affected by the cure in the water, but if they already _have_ been, it should fix them. Reactivate their powers. You know, if they deserve to have them." He tapped one of the syringes. "This one is for Rubber Band Man, for instance."

"So, basically, whomever you want to keep their powers can?" Shenice raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a little high and mighty?"

"Yeah, I guess it is. But it's necessary." Richie sighed again and shook his head slowly. "Unless you can think of a better plan."

Twisting around, Shenice leaned her back against the back of Richie's chair and stared into the next room, where Virgil was puttering around waiting for Maureen to wake up. "No…not really. Come on, if you're going to give that to Rubberband Man, let's go do it now."

Richie seemed as though he was going to object, but then he just shrugged. "Alright, I'll go get changed."

* * *

Maria shifted, feeling the sand as it settled beneath her rear. It had been a month since she'd gone solid, a month since she stopped being Aquamaria, and she still couldn't get used to how some things felt. When she was water, sand felt like...like running her fingers through honey, somehow. She couldn't really have explained it, even if she cared enough to do so.

She let out a breath and turned to watch the last rays of the setting sun drifting down past the edge of the horizon, the water gleaming in orange and red. Her arm stretched out and she traced her fingers along the surface of the water.

It had taken a little while to slip past the police barricade, but she had to do so. She had to see the ship, to see where Francis had…had died. She almost laughed at the thought of his name, a bitter smile coming to her face. He hated being called Francis…even when they'd been dating, he'd asked her to call him Hotstreak. Not that she ever did, of course. Pushing his buttons was too much fun.

She hadn't talked to him in a month. Not since the cure…not since he'd screwed it up. Part of her was still angry about that, furiously angry, but on the other hand…he had done it because he didn't want her to leave him. Maria couldn't exactly fault him for that…even if he had gone about it the wrong way.

But it was supposed to be different now! With the cure in the water, Francis would be just as human as she was. She'd find him, things would get…well, things would hopefully get back to normal. Sure, he was a punk…but he was _her_ punk. Except now he was dead.

"Enjoying watching the burning ball of fire disappear?"

"Well, I _was_," Maria didn't turn around, she just sat up a bit straighter and forced herself to keep from jumping up and running off. "Hello Shiv. How did you find me?"

"Called your mom, actually. She said you ran off when you heard about Ebon and Hotstreak on the news. Checked a couple of places…and here you are." The slightly insane teen sat down in the sand next to her, letting his sneaker-covered feet rest in the wet sand so the next wave would wash over them. "How you doing?"

"I…don't know," Maria finally said softly, resting her chin on her hands. "I can't believe he's…the last thing we did was fight, you know. Well, if he told you. He didn't want me to be normal, he figured I'd leave him. Which I did…so I guess he was right. I was going to go talk to him soon, but…" She stretched out her pale hand, indicating the tanker. "…Now I can't."

"Well, he _might_ be alive. I mean, Ebon survived, so Hotstreak could have too, somehow." Shiv shrugged his shoulders. "You never know."

It was all Maria could do not to hit the other teen, her eyes wide. "Ebon _survived?_ How? I saw the report on TV, and they were blown to bits!" Her accent was more obvious now, as she started to get upset.

"He says he doesn't remember any of it, he just woke up on the beach. Actually, that's sort of why I'm here…he's putting the gang back together, he managed to get some more of the Big Bang gas."

Maria pursed her lips. "I don't want my powers back, Shiv. I mean, I miss them, sure, but I'm normal now. I can go to school, I can have a life. I don't have to worry about the cops anymore!"

"Yeah, but if Hotstreak _is_ dead, then Static and Gear killed him. Without your powers, you can't get even." Shiv pushed himself to his feet and shrugged. "Ebon is holdin' up in that warehouse he had set up as a backup hideout if you change your mind."

He headed back down the beach, leaving Maria to watch him until he was out of sight. With a sigh, the latino girl turned back to the ocean just in time to see the very last trails of the sunset disappear beneath the sea. She set her arms on her knees, her forehead on her arms, and cried.

_Damn it._

_

* * *

_

Maureen awoke slowly, her eyes barely opening as her body tried to catch up with everything that happened. She felt like she was crawling her way out of a steep, greased tunnel, and every few seconds someone punched in the cheek. Only not nearly that pleasant.

"Mrr…?" She managed to make a noise, and the noise helped to get the rest of her senses in tune as her eyes opened slowly. _Where am I?_ It couldn't have been her castle, she didn't have a couch. _I'm on a couch?_ It certainly seemed like a couch, anyway. It had all the cushion-like qualities couches usually possessed.

"Hey, are you awake?" The voice was nearby, and familiar. Male, friendly…_Static._

"Where am I?" she finally asked, rolling onto her stomach and pushing herself up onto her knees. She wasn't wearing her overcoat anymore, but she did have a blanket. And she didn't feel as cold. Plus there was… "And what's this?" Her fingers traced along the metal ring of the small collar that had been hooked around her neck.

"You're at our hideout…we didn't want to leave you with the police, and we weren't sure where else to take you." Static was seated across the room in a large charge, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and his mask, which Maureen thought looked rather silly. She would have laughed if she didn't still feel so out of it. "The collar is to control your powers…but yours are so strong it can't just turn them off. Just…dampen them a lot."

"Oh," she tapped her fingers against the metal collar, feeling each of the grooves and screws before letting her hand drop back into her lap. "Is my castle gone?"

"Probably," Static nodded, and Maureen couldn't resist the sigh that welled up inside of her. She'd liked that castle…creating it had made her feel better. It had almost made her feel like she could have had a home.

"It's pretty hot today," Static continued, his voice soft and apologetic. "Once you weren't around to keep the area cold, it should have started melting immediately."

"Yeah," she nodded slowly, staring at the floor. It felt strange, being only a little cold. Her powers had not been turned off for very long before she had been reexposed…she could barely even remember what being normal felt like. Still…this was probably as close as she was going to get. But it felt…_uncomfortable_ somehow.

_And a bit helpless_. The thought forced itself to the front of her brain and she couldn't help but agree with it. When she was cold, at least she knew she could protect herself. It was the only upside of a rather crummy situation. But now she was cold _and_ she couldn't protect herself.

Well, maybe…

She stretched out her arm, palm upward, fingers bent, and concentrated.

* * *

Virgil watched Maureen as she stared intently at her hand, her eyes almost closed, and resisted the urge to scratch at his mask. For some reason, when he wasn't in full costume, the mask just felt weird, almost itchy and uncomfortable, like he was just pretending to be someone else.

Very slowly, like a bird forcing itself from an egg, an ice sculpture of a terrier formed in the palm of the ice-powered girls hand. She let out a gasp as she finished, her breath almost ragged as she set the statue down on the table. "That was _really_ hard."

The girl was taking all this much, much better than Virgil had expected, really. Maybe her temper was somehow connected to power…although he wasn't entirely sure how that would happen. Of course, it was just as likely she was calmer because she wasn't freezing, so he wasn't going to guess one way or the other.

"Yeah, it's because of the collar. You'd have to ask Gear how they work, exactly, but they somehow…inhibit the way we're bang babies. When I'm wearing one, I can barely make the tiniest spark." Virgil smiled, forcing his hands under his legs. He was not going to scratch at his mask, damn it. "Trying will just make you tired."

Maureen seemed to nod in agreement, closing her hands over the little statue. A moment later, she opened them again and the dog was gone. "So what now? Are you going to send me away?" She sounded scared, and Virgil couldn't really blame her. She'd been sent away from everywhere, and it made sense he would send her away too. It wasn't as though they could _keep_ her here.

_Or could we?_

_

* * *

_

Adam Evans, musician, boyfriend, and part-time superhero, was feeling terribly un-superhero-esque at the moment. When he'd first heard about the announcement that their was a cure for Bang babies, he'd been excited. All those criminals would be normal again, and not able to cause so much trouble. But once they had decided that _all_ the bang babies were going to lose their powers, even the good ones, he'd been…well…_angry_ was a somewhat accurate word.

And now he was just being depressed. He could barely stretch his arm a foot, and he hadn't been able to change shape in three days. He _liked_ being Rubberband Man. It made him feel like his life meant something again, almost as much as Sharon did. And now he was going to lose it.

Plus, without powers, he didn't have much of an excuse to do things between Sharon and music which resulted in a lot of television watching. A _lot_ of television watching.

So when the knock came at his door, Adam sprung out of his seat and across the room, using every last bit of his stretchy nature to give a happy bounce to his otherwise miserable steps. Of course, seeing Gear and Shebang standing outside was enough to make the bounce real.

"Hey guys, what's up?" He stepped back, allowing the two younger teens into the room and then closing the door with a click. "And please say it's good news."

"Well, I guess that sort of depends on your definition of good news," Gear grinned as he twisted around to face the stretchy youth. He tugged a small syringe out of a compartment on his sleeve and held it up. "Is a cure for the bang baby cure 'good news'?"

All Adam could do was grin.

* * *

When Gear and Shebang arrived back at the Gas Station, they found Virgil standing outside floating a small metal table and a couch in through the front door. "Hey Bro, what's up?" Gear ducked his head as the table did a fancy little spin in the air and then disappeared into the building.

"I'm just cleaning up that room in the back of the station. You know, the one we were leaving all that useless junk from when we cleaned all the other rooms? I ducked that stuff into the junkyard and the grabbed some other stuff." Virgil carefully lowered the pieces of furniture onto the floor inside, then turned around and waved a hand, scooping up a small fridge he'd found that worked and sending that floating inside as well.

"Yeah, but why?" Shebang sounded skeptical, watching him carefully. "You never liked cleaning before."

"Oh, well, you know…it was just sort of…something to do?" Virgil tried to sound honest, but it just came off as trite. So instead he just ducked inside the building and began hovering the various bits of furniture through the livingroom and into the backroom.

"Virgil, you aren't doing what I _think_ you're doing, are you?" Gear came in behind him, tugging off his mask and eyeing him. "It's not going to work."

"It might work!" Virgil took long enough to lower the fridge into the back room before he turned around to face Richie. "It's not like we have anywhere else to send her. No one would adopt a bang baby, even the people at the church didn't want her, and I wouldn't forgive myself for sending her to be locked up with criminals."

"Wait a second…you're gonna let the ice-princess live _here?_" Shenice looked shocked as she tugged her mask off, glancing from Virgil to the far door and back. "She tried to freeze us to death! To _death_, Virgil!"

"Yeah, I know, but we were trying to destroy her castle at the time." Virgil shook his head. "Look, it's just till we figure out where she can go, alright? She's got that collar on, and she seems happy know that no one wants to send her away." He narrowed his eyes, giving both his friends a look. "_No one _wants to send her away, right?"

"Uh…sure Virg, fine. I just hope this doesn't end badly." Richie turned and headed off into his lab, and Virgil couldn't help but laugh.

"It probably will. Everything _else _has lately. Why not this too?"

* * *

Ebon stared through the large glass window into the small air-tight containment room as he rolled the Bang gas canister slowly from one hand to the other. It had taken most of the day to find the right room for his idea, but now that he had, it was all going to be perfect.

He set the canister down in the small gas delivery slot in the machine and clicked the lid closed. The building had half a dozen biohazard stickers on the door, and he didn't even want to think about what might have been let loose in the room his gang was now standing in.

'His Gang.' Ebon liked the sound of that. He had been worried he'd never have another one…well, another one as effective as a Bang Baby gang…but it seemed he would. Ferret had come back, of course, and Madelyn would be a useful edition, once he managed to get her in line…but Maria had been the surprise. When he'd talked to Shiv, ebon had gotten the distinct impression the Aqua girl was not going to be coming back. But there she was, sitting in the back corner of the room staring at the ceiling. She hadn't said a word when she arrived, but Ebon was more than willing to let her in.

"We ready mon?" Kangor came up next to his featureless leader and peered past him into the room. "I never expected Maria to show up."

"Neither did I…but she's got her reasons. And she's our key for taking out Static, so I ain't complainin'." Ebon grinned and pointed to the open door. "You better get in there."

"I'm goin', I'm goin'." The former bang baby stepped into the room and yanked the cast-iron door closed behind him. With the faint hiss of pressurization, the room sealed itself up.

Ebon waited for the people inside to situate themselves before he flicked on the intercom. "Alright, here's how this is goin' down. We know what happened on the boat when me and matchstick inhaled too much of the gas, and we don't want none of that happenin' again, so I'm gonna use this dispenser to regulate how much all you get." He tapped his black finger against the console twice, ignoring the angry look that Maria had shot him at the mention of Hotstreak.

"So you all just make sure ya breath deeply when I release the gas, and I'll clear it out after thirty seconds or so. Tryin' to make this as close to when the bang went off as I can, alright?" He received a few silent nods in response, and then reached out and clicked the button to dispense the gas.

Fifteen seconds later, the room was completely obscured by the dancing smoke, and he clicked the dispenser off. Didn't want to use all the gas, might need it later. He counted slowly to fifteen, and hit the switch to clear the air out of the room.

As he watched his gang fade back into sight, he couldn't help but grin. Oh yeah…things were looking _good._

_I realize not much action happened in this chapter, but sometimes that is necessary. Plus at least you know I'm still writing it. ;)_


End file.
